Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

3 far as he could learn, he said, CBS-Columbia made only about 5-600 color sets, sold mere 100. "The public threw CBS out," he said. As for NPA color ban, DuMont said: "We objected to it. We thought it was a way to take Columbia off the hook." Asserting that color is 5-10 years off, he said: "There's no use kidding you that you'll have it tomorrow." Asked if FCC has retarded color, he replied: "No, they retarded black-&-white for 3% years." * # * # DR. W.R.G. BAKER, GE, chairman of NTSC — After reciting history and scope of NTSC, he urged that nothing be permitted to interfere with field tests; that FCC formally recognize NTSC; that the FCC permit more experimentation during commercial telecasting hours ; that Commission adopt compatible system without hearing, when submitted, just as it approved black-&-white standards in 1941. Rep. Hinshaw went to work on Baker, saying it looked like an "insurrection" against the CBS system on part of manufacturers ; that NPA ban looked fishy because manufacturers continued making plenty of black-&-white sets ; that NTSC was organized to defeat CBS system; that colorcasting can't start before color sets are produced. Baker disagreed with him all down the line, of course, stating that Korean war did absorb materials & manpower; that high rate of black-&-white production was attributable to manufacturers ' conservation measures; that CBS failed from telecasting standpoint because of incompatibility; that engineers rejected the CBS system because of inferior performance; that colorcasting must precede set production. Chairman Wolverton defended industry, saying that FCC held "door open" to new systems when it adopted CBS system and industry took advantage of it by forming NTSC; and that CBS itself "recognizes NTSC system as superior." CBS's Stanton wired Wolverton to deny he acknowledged NTSC system to be superior, said the Congressman had "major misunderstanding" of CBS's position. * * * * When FCC appears before Committee March 31, its makeup will be considerably different from composition when CBS system was adopted in October 1950. Prime protagonist of CBS system who urged color-now, Robert Jones, is gone. Prime defender of FCC's decision, ex-chairman Wayne Coy, is gone. And current spokesman, Chairman Walker, is due to leave by July 1 — probably before new system is presented to FCC. STORER BUYS WBRC-TV; OTHER DEALS PEND: On the theory that "everyone has his price, " most of the 108 pre-freeze stations — and even a few of the new ones — have been eagerly approached during the last few years of TV's upsurge by enterprisers seeking to buy. It's apparently the easier, albeit costlier, way of getting into the business, particularly via the scarcer vhf channels. You haven't heard the last of "big deals" involving stations — for several more are presently cooking, near completion — including sale by Mrs. Eloise Hanna of WBRC-TV, Birmingham, Ala. (Ch. 4), with WBRC-AM, to Storer Broadcasting Co. for $2,400,000. It's understood deal was engineered by station broker Howard E. Stark. It gives Storer limit of 5, means he'll drop applications for Miami and Wheeling. It may take a long time before another $8,500,000 is forked out for a single TV outlet (as for Philco's WPTZ, Philadelphia; Vol. 9:8), or another $6,000,000 is paid (as for WBKB, Chicago, now CBS's WBBM-TV ; Vol. 9:7) — but the prices are still high and the old stations still being eagerly sought. It's an open secret that Westinghouse has shopped for more stations than the one it founded (WBZ-TV, Boston) and the WPTZ it purchased last month; and that CBS, George Storer, Tom O'Neil, Hulbert Taft Jr. , the Alvar ez-Wrather team have been seeking to purchase more stations to bring themselves up to the permissible 5. There are others too, undoubtedly, moving perhaps more quietly — and the fact is that even such solidly entrenched ownerships as Chicago Tribune's WGN-TV, Detroit News' WWJ-TV, Kansas City Star's WDAF-TV, Milwaukee Journal's WTMJ-TV, the 3 DuMont stations, Stanley Hubbard's KSTP-TV, have been approached with "offers". Latest Storer TV purchase is expected to be followed by several other deals shortly to add to those involving 18 stations listed on p. 93 of our TV Factbook No. 16 and those subsequent: the $1,500,000 sale of WTVN, Columbus, to Taft interests